


It's Nice to be Appreciated

by ValiantOrange



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Mercy's interns talk about life, Nanomachines, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Research, Science, Slice of Life, Slipstream Project
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-08 19:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11653290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValiantOrange/pseuds/ValiantOrange
Summary: A story about Mercy's overworked (and underappreciated) research interns who are only here to get their PhDs. It's hard to do research when your advisor is constantly running off to save the world.Takes place before the fall of Overwatch.





	1. Guardian Angel Online

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction to the fic, introduces the two lead characters and the tone of the story.
> 
> The first chapter is entirely about the two OCs, with the main Overwatch crew only being mentioned in conversation.

“Y’know, neither Su-mi or I got mentioned once in that interview,” Mark said, his voice fighting against the music that blared in the bar. He drummed against his beer glass, his gaze darting between his beer and the woman seated across from him. He finally decided it would be polite to look at his girlfriend and made tentative eye contact, realizing how underdressed he was in his Overwatch hoodie.

Lara gave a half smile to Mark, “What interview?”

Th- th, the one in Science Magazine?” Mark sighed and took a deep drink, “I mean, it’s ridiculous. They’re interviewing her about the Valkyrie swift-response suit and she doesn’t even think to mention me? You know why it’s swift? Because it can fucking fly.”

“Maybe she just-“ Lara started.

Nononono,” Mark shook his head, “You don’t just forget to mention the guy who helped design a core component of your suit. Dr. Ziegler has a PhD in Applied Nanobiology, do you know how much aerospace engineering they teach you in Applied Nanobiology?”

“No Mark,” Lara said, narrowing her eyes, “I really don’t.”

None. Absolutely none. It’s a fucking nanotech degree.” Mark drank again. “You know I’m one of the coauthors of the paper she published, right? Like right there. Angela Ziegler, Su-mi Jeong, Mark Quill.”

“You keep telling me what I know, Mark,” Lara leaned back in her seat.

Mark glanced down at the table, “You’re not drinking? Your beer’s full.”

“What?”

Mark shook his head, “Don’t worry,” he glanced to the side and looked at a pair of Omnics dancing, “I’m thinking about asking them to restart the Slipstream project.” He picked up his glass, “I mean, the Valkyrie system is effectively solved at this point. All I’m doing these days is just routine maintenance and marginal improvements. It’s a waste of my time. I’m supposed to be here to work on a PhD.”

“Can we stop talking about work?” Lara looked at the beer in Mark’s hand waiting for him to drink it.

“Uhh,” Mark sipped, “Right. Right, sorry.” He set the glass down, “Oh yeah, Su-mi and I might go to France in a couple of weeks to visit a friend of hers. Want to come?”

“Why is it that she’s the first person you talk about when I ask to stop talking about work?”

“What? S-she’s my roommate.”

Lara took a deep breath and leaned forward, “This is exhausting, Mark.”

Mark reached out for the beer then stopped himself. He looked at Lara and opened his mouth, not sure what to say.

“It’s just nonstop with you. Valkyrie this, Overwatch that. Ziegler, Su-mi,” Lara clenched a fist, “At this point I feel like I could maintain that stupid suit you hate so much.”

“I don’t hate it,” Mark mumbled.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know with how much you bitch. You’re either blindly in love with Overwatch or you hate it.”

“I- I mean, I, uhh.” Mark took a breath, “We talked about this. When, when we first started dating. I told you that my work had to be my top priority.”

“Yeah you said it’d be your top priority, not your only priority.” Lara closed her eyes and looked down, “I just can’t do this anymore Mark. We never talk about us.”

“So we’re breaking up?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” Mark scratched the back of his neck, “Okay.”

Lara studied Mark. “Mark, are you in love with her?”

“What?”

“You can’t shut up about her. You always seem to have Ziegler on your mind,” Lara adjusted in her seat, “Are you in love with her?”

“What the fuck? No! She’s my boss.”

“So that means you can’t be in love with her?”

Mark rested his shoulder on the desk and pinched the bridge of his nose, “What? No. I am not in love with Dr. Ziegler.”

“What about Su-mi?”

“What the hell, Lara?”

“You’re always wearing that stupid matching hoodie she got you.”

Mark glanced down at himself and clenched his teeth. He took a slow breath. “It’s an Overwatch hoodie. Su-mi and I work for Overwatch. Are you going to get upset about the fact that we both wear white lab coats?”

Lara’s breath started to quiver and Mark stood up slowly, “I’m… uhh,” he finished his beer, “I’m going to leave okay?” He glanced at her glass of beer, “I paid for the last round, right?”

Lara nodded.

Mark grabbed her beer and raised it to his mouth.

“Oh real mature, asshole,” Lara scowled at Mark.

He drained it and set the glass down, “Hey I paid for it.” Mark turned around and started trying to force his way through the crowd in the bar, wincing as he bumped into an Omnic. He apologized and stood up straight, looming over the people around him. After about a minute of exertion he stumbled out into the street and the cool air hit him. The bar was located a thirty-minute walk away from Overwatch’s Swiss headquarters. With a sigh, he pulled his hood up and started walking back to headquarters.

________________________________________

Su-mi listlessly watched a documentary on sharks in the quarters she shared with Mark. Working with Overwatch had been surprisingly like being an undergraduate again, especially when she considered her roommate’s maturity. Not that she was much better. The only part of it she really disliked was the lack of a kitchen. The Overwatch food court had amazing food, but they weren’t exactly friendly to people awake at the odd hours of the night, when Su-mi had found that she was most productive.

The door was opened, a bit rougher than it had to be, and Mark stumbled into the room. Su-mi glanced over at him and smiled, “Hi.”

“Lara just broke up with me,” he said, sitting down on his bed.

Su-mi’s smile faded, “Oh. I’m sorry.” She paused her video, “We’re out of beer, by the way.”

Mark nodded, “Okay, what about the handle of vodka?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Su-mi smiled again.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Mark hopped off his bed and started looking under it.

“Uhh, are you doing okay?” Su-mi stood up, “Do you want to cry?”

“Not particularly,” Mark grabbed the bottle and pulled it out, “Aha.”

“Do you want a hug?”

Mark looked at Su-mi, “Uhh, a bit, yeah.”

“Too bad, sorry,” Su-mi grinned at him, “So… you’re single?”

“Yeah,” Mark opened the bottle and sniffed it, wincing at the smell.

“So, you can finally tell Dr. Ziegler that you’re in love with her.”

“Fuck you Su,” Mark sat down and took a sip, sticking his tongue out after. “Do I really come across like that?”

Su-mi shrugged, “I’m going to get to sleep soon, try not to cry too loudly.”

Mark grunted in response and Su-mi hopped into her bed.

________________________________________

Su-mi tapped the projection on her desk, pulling up the data on the latest iteration of the healing beam. Last week she’d tested a new control algorithm, and while it had caused an almost 10% decrease in power consumption, they were losing communication between some of the nanomachines. Su-mi let out a sigh as she continued to study the data. Each of the nanomachines were roughly half the size of a red blood cell, meaning that you could fit over a hundred thousand on the head of a needle. The current communication protocol had chains of nanomachines talking, meaning if you lost a link in a chain, everything below it was lost as well. This was efficient for power consumption, but wasn’t nearly reliable enough.

Everything about the healing beam was relatively simple when one explained it in general terms. Even Su-mi’s big contribution to the project had been explained in one sentence: “What if we had the nanomachines return to the Caduceus staff?” Dr. Ziegler’s first healing beam relied on a steady flow of nanomachines to be pumped into the patient’s body. It’d taken over a year, but they’d managed to get to the point where they could fit all the nanomachines required for a mission into one staff. The dream was to have a system with 100% recycling of machines.

“I need a new communication system,” Su-mi mumbled to herself. She stretched, fully aware of how little sleep she’d gotten. Between Mark’s drunken rambling and Ziegler suddenly waking her up at 4:30 to perform mission calibration of the Valkyrie suit, Su-mi felt she was owed some sleep.

The door to the lab opened and Su-mi turned in her chair, grinning when she saw Mark walk in. “Morning buddy,” she said in her peppiest voice.

Mark glanced at his wrist, before realizing he wasn’t wearing a watch. He walked over to Su-mi’s desk and glanced at the monitor, “It is, uhh, 11:34. Still morning. Wow.” He stretched, “I need something greasy in me. Want to go eat?”

“Sure,” Su-mi hopped up, “So, how’re you feeling?”

Mark groaned as they stepped into the halls and started making their way past men and woman in lab coats. He glanced at himself then down towards Su-mi. “Y’know, we rarely wear our lab coats.”

Su-mi shrugged, “The hoodies are warmer, and we work with electronics. A lab coat won’t protect you from a short circuit, not being an idiot does.” She smiled, “Thinking about it, it’s a miracle you’re alive.”

Mark grumbled in response then looked back forward and slouched forward, rubbing his forehead with a moan.

“Don’t worry dude, we’ve all been there,” Su-mi put her hands in her pocket and laughed softy when she realized she was almost the same height as Mark when he slouched this much.

Mark looked at Su-mi, “Really? Tell me about one of your breakups.”

Su-mi scoffed, “Please, I’m the one that breaks hearts.”

“Right, right,” Mark let out a heavy sigh, “I need water.”

The two walked out of the research wing of the Overwatch base and into the main compound. It was a different world, and neither of them really felt like they fit in with the people in Overwatch’s crisp blue uniforms. Mark, especially, was always reminded of how lacking he was in muscles. Fortunately, they could cut directly through the center of the compound to the food courts. It was easier than usual, though.

Su-mi and Mark split up once they got into the food court, Mark heading straight for the deep-fried chicken and potatoes. Su-mi spent some time wondering if she’d actually try something new before resigning herself to getting Korean food again. Today they had kimbap. They reunited in the corner of the food court, and Su-mi stared incredulously at Mark’s massive pile of fried foods.

“I’m almost impressed,” she said, “Did they deep fry vegetables?”

Mark nodded.

“Doesn’t that defeat the point of vegetables? Can you even taste them anymore?”

“Hey, it lets me pretend to be healthy,” Mark grinned and skewered a potato with his fork.

“Americans,” Su-mi muttered. She glanced at Mark, “Uhh, you are doing okay right?”

He glanced at Su-mi, his mouth full then smiled and nodded. “Thanks,” he said, managing to not spit out any food.

Su-mi steepled her hands and studied Mark. After he finished his potatoes she cleared her throat and smiled, “Last night you mentioned something about how you’d rather date Omnics than people.”

Mark grunted, glancing down.

“Wait, no no. I know you can talk again,” Su-mi grinned. “Do you long for the cold hard feeling of steel against your supple, soft flesh?”

“Eh, I dated an Omnic once,” Mark mumbled.

“Ahh, so you don’t long for that feeling. You miss it.” Su-mi nibbled on her kimbap.

“I-it’s just that,” Mark sighed, “She was really logical. It was easy to talk things out with her, y’know.” He shrugged, “Would you date an Omnic?”

“Well no shit she was logical, she was a computer.” Su-mi frowned at the radish mixed in with the rice, “And no, of course not.”

“Uh, w-what,” Mark shook his head, “What do you mean of course not?”

Su-mi set down her kimbap, frowning at the table. She clicked her tongue then glanced at Mark, “Well, they’re just not the same as us.”

“What do you mean? They-“

“I know, I know,” Su-mi clasped her hands together, “They’re sentient beings, fully self-aware just like we are. But at the end of the day they’re still just parts.” Su-mi glanced at Mark who was looking down. “I’m making you uncomfortable,” she said.

“No, it’s just,” he rubbed his head, “Why?”

“Why do I think they’re just parts?”

Mark nodded.

“Well,” Su-mi glanced up, “Okay. So, a month ago there was that Omnic agent that died out on a mission to Afghanistan. Overwatch needed help doing an autopsy on him, so they had me handling the disassembly. And on the inside, it’s the exact same as what you’d find in a computer. They don’t have a brain, they don’t have a heart. They just have a CPU and memory. Sure, sure; it’s way more advanced than anything I’d put in a computer I keep around for personal use, but it’s the same stuff fundamentally.”

Su-mi took a drink of water, “I could build all the hardware required to make an Omnic. Hell, I even understand the learning algorithms that the Omnics accidentally developed sentience with. At the end of the day all that Omnics are are one of humanity’s most sophisticated creations. But, the important part of that is we created them.”

Mark rubbed his chin, looking carefully at Su-mi.

“I just wouldn’t feel comfortable dating someone that, well, I could create. I wouldn’t feel like their equal.” Su-mi shrugged.

“Man, it’s like I’m talking to an Asian Dr. Lindholm.”

Su-mi chuckled, “That’s certainly a way to defuse the situation.”

Mark pointed at Su-mi, “What’s your opinion on Omnic rights though?”

“I’ll support those. Why not? It doesn’t hurt me. I still won’t date them though.” Su-mi held a finger up, “Though I will say that I do disagree with Dr. Lindholm on one thing.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“He claims that the fact that they work purely on logic is a bad thing. I disagree. By the very definition of logic, a purely logical being is, well, good.”

“Ah, but what about empathy?” Mark leaned forward.

“All that empathy is is a logical response to another person’s emotions.” Su-mi gave an empty smile. “I’ve never understood this idea that being logical means being unempathetic. When you see someone that’s sad, isn’t it logical to go console them?”

Mark hummed, drumming his fingers against the table, “Y’know, I’ll agree with that one. But not with Omnics being just machines. You also imply that since we created them, we’re superior to them, but by that logic doesn’t that make your parents superior to you?”

“Hmm,” Su-mi took her glasses off and rubbed the bridge of her nose, “No, it’s different. Our parents aren’t assembling us. It’s just natural biology taking its course. The Omnics, at their core, are just computers.”

Mark shook his head, “I disagree. We’re just making them, it doesn’t matter what we make them from. Once they become sentient they become their own being. But I don’t think either of us can convince the other.” He started cutting up his chicken, “I will say that I wasn’t quite expecting a debate on Omnic rights this morning.”

“Hey, I’m fine with Omnic rights,” Su-mi picked her kimbap up.

“Right, right. Maybe it’s different for you. You are the electrical engineer, after all. I barely understand how CPUs are built.” Mark ran a hand through his perpetually messy hair.

Su-mi nodded, “That I am.”

“You’re just too logical about it. I prefer my bigots to be loud and assholes.” Mark started eating his chicken, raising an eyebrow at Su-mi.

“Ahh, my apologies, I’ll work on that.”

Su-mi and Mark ate quietly, and Mark looked around the food court. The soldiers were starting to file in for lunch.

“Oh, Mark, random question,” Su-mi said.

“What’s up?”

“How did sex work with the Omnic?” Su-mi grinned widely at Mark.

Mark scoffed, “Fuck off, Su-mi.”

________________________________________

Su-mi went for her seat as soon as the pair returned to the lab. She jumped into it, rolling it towards her desk, and catching herself with a soft grunt.

“What’re you up to today?” Mark said, pulling his chair out and booting up his computer.

“Trying to figure out a new control algorithm for the nanomachines,” Su-mi stretched her arms above her head, “Want to help?”

Mark shrugged, “Why not, I don’t have much else going on. Just some routine maintenance.” He looked at the door, “Speaking of which, where is Dr. Ziegler? It’s unusual of her not to be here by now.”

Su-mi glanced at Mark, “Oh crap, that’s kind of important.” She spun to face him, “She’s in London.”

“London?” Mark glanced down, “What? I-isn’t there the, uhh,” Mark scratched his head, “That Null Sector uprising?”

Su-mi nodded, “Commander Morrison sent our beloved advisor along with Lindholm, Reinhardt and that new recruit,” Su-mi looked down, thinking, “Oxton?”

“What the hell are they doing there? Wasn’t Overwatch given orders not to intervene?”

Su-mi shrugged, “It barely involves my research, so it barely involves me.”

Mark blinked, a worried look on his face, “W-what abou-“ he paused, “Wait. Fuck. Uhh,” Mark glanced to the cabinets where they stored the Valkyrie swift-response suit, “Did Dr. Ziegler take her suit?”

“Of course she took her suit, she’s on a mission. I had to wake up at 4:30 this morning to calibrate it with her because your drunk ass wouldn’t wake up.” Su-mi smiled, “You’re welcome by the way, Dr. Ziegler was trying to wake you up.”

Mark stood up and started pacing, “Did you catch anything during the calibration?”

“No, should I have?”

“Uhh, well, yeah,” Mark sighed, “Last night, before my date, I figured out that one of the anti-grav feathers wasn’t stable. It kept coming loose, which caused the flight system to be unstable…” He glanced towards where the suits were stored, thinking.

Su-mi stood up, “Why did you pause? Keep talking. What the hell did you do?”

“I was in a hurry, so I taped it down and tested it, and it held.”

Su-mi took a slow breath, “Okay. Okay. We did a quick flight test, and it worked fine.” She walked to Mark and grabbed his shoulders, “How much torque is exerted on the feather’s joint whenever she flies? How strong is the adhesive in the tape you used?”

“I- I, can we contact her?”

“She’s on a secret mission that violates direct orders from the UN, no we can’t fucking contact her.” Su-mi bit down, “I swear to god, if you’ve killed our advisor.”

“W-we can’t do anything about it.”

“No we can’t,” Su-mi started rubbing her temples, “I am here for one reason. One reason. And if you just fucked me out of my PhD because you thought duct taping a critical component of our advisor’s suit was an appropriate action to take,” she took a deep breath, “Okay. Let’s do some math. We can figure out how likely it is that we killed her.”

Mark sat back down and slid to his computer, “Okay, there are five feathers on either side. The feathers fan out and the force is distributed evenly across them. We can pretty easily calculate the base amount of force on each of the feathers. It was the third feather on the right wing.”

“That’s the longest one. Fantastic.” Su-mi leaned over Mark and pulled up the Valkyrie specs on his computer.

“Total weight of the system is 10 kilograms,” Mark muttered, “Dr. Ziegler is, uhh,” he paused, “How much does Dr. Ziegler weigh?”

“Why would I know that? Shouldn’t you know? You designed the suit around her, didn’t you?”

“I, uhh, tried to forget, figured it’d be polite,” Mark pursed his lips together. He looked at Su-mi, who was opening her mouth, “Yes, yes I know I’m an idiot you don’t need to say it,” he sighed, “She’s a bit taller than you, but has a similar build. What do you weigh?”

“55 kilograms last I checked,” Su-mi looked back at the monitor, “Let’s assume she’s around 60 then, so there’s a total mass of 70 kilograms being moved around. That’s, uhh 686.7 Newtons of force to hover, divided by ten means 68.67 Newtons of force on each feather.”

“Feather three is 0.85 meters long at full extension, but that’s only during maximum acceleration.”

“Which is?”

“30 meters in 1.5 seconds, from rest,” Mark sighed, “So 60 divided by 2.25.” He tapped it into his computer, “26.6667 meters per second per second. Multiplied by the mass gives… 1866.6667, lets round that up to 1866.7. Meaning a total of 2553.4 Newtons that the suit exerts. Each feather has 255.34 Newtons, which is evenly distributed across the feather, so we multiply it by .425, giving, 108.52 Newton-meters of torque on the joint.”

“Okay, can the duct tape handle that?” Su-mi sighed, “That’s pretty low though.”

“How should I know?”

“Goddamn it Mark. Where’s the tape?”

“Wait, wait, think about this Su-mi. She’s on a mission with Dr. Lindholm and Reinhardt, neither of whom are exactly famous for their high mobility. She won’t be flying around too much.” Mark turned around and faced Su-mi, “I’m sure the tape can handle that much stress a few times, considering the fact that it was mainly just there to help secure a loose bolt.”

“They also took that new agent, Oxton. Have you seen her? I swear, she has ADD or something, she can’t keep still,” Su-mi took off her glasses and started cleaning them.

“She’s a trained soldier, she won’t be running off like an idiot,” Mark turned back to the desk and leaned against it, “I hope she won’t at least.” He nodded to himself, “It should be fine. I hope it’s fine. Was everything else good when you checked?”

“Yes, the power distribution was stable. I put a new battery in, so there’s no risk of that failing. Cooling worked fine. And none of my electronics are being held together by adhesives.” Su-mi sat down next to Mark, “There was a short, but I replaced the wires.”

“Okay. So, the,” Mark paused, “The only way this kills her is if she flies straight up at full speed and the joint fails; causing the suit to spin out of control. Even if the feather blows midflight, if she’s not flying straight up she’ll just crash into the ground. It’ll hurt, but it won’t be lethal.” He nodded again, “The suit’s, yeah, the suit is made to keep functioning even if she gets shot. A bit of crashing won’t knock it out of commission.”

He looked at Su-mi who was staring blankly at the monitor. “We can’t contact her at all, the media can’t cover anything that’s happening in London. When will we know if she’s okay?” Mark said.

“When she gets back,” Su-mi bobbed her head to the side, “If she gets back.”

“When she gets back, Su.”

The two sat at their desks, neither really paying attention to anything. Su-mi put her glasses back on and opened her data on the nanomachines, “We’re not telling Ziegler any of this, okay? When she gets back you take the suit and tell her you’re doing routine post op maintenance. I’ll take her to her office to discuss the control system for the nanomachines.”

“Thanks Su-mi,” Mark mumbled, “Here, what’re you working on, I’ll help a bit.”

Su-mi sent her files over to Mark, “Don’t worry. You’ve done way too much work to get fired over this. How the hell were you supposed to know that Dr. Ziegler would run off on an illegal operation?”

“Th-that means a lot, Su,” Mark sighed, “What do you think is going to happen when the UN finds out what Overwatch is doing?”

Su-mi frowned, “I think that depends on whether they succeed or not.”

“Let’s say they do. They always do.”

“It’s, well, it’s Overwatch going where they aren’t wanted. And I know that it’s not what Commander Morrison meant, but it might be seen as him implying that he knows better than the UN. And it might also be taken as a show of force.” Su-mi leaned back in her chair.

“What do you mean a show of force?”

“Think about it. London falls apart, the local military can’t handle it. Then Overwatch sends four people and resolves it immediately. Like it or not, the world might take that as Overwatch showing off how powerful it is.”

Mark nodded, “That’s, uhh, that’s a good point.” He glanced over at Su-mi, “We should be okay, though. We’re just doing research here. And our PhDs are technically coming from Harvard.”

“Yeah,” Su-mi stretched, “I just hope that they’ve thought about what their actions today might cause,” she lowered her arms slowly, “Ahh well, no point dwelling on it. Though, Mark?”

“What’s up?”

“You are an imbecile.”

Mark chuckled and smiled, “I know.”


	2. Heilstrahl Debugging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chapter that focuses a bit more on Su-mi as both an individual and an engineer.

Su-mi sat on the side of her bed, holding her phone. She squinted, anticipating the light from the phone as she tapped it on. The light flared, and she winced, lamenting the futility of her preparation. After a few seconds Su-mi’s eyes adjusted and she checked the time: 5:42AM. That made it 12:42PM in Seoul, it was probably safe to call. She glanced to the side at Mark, who was slumped over on his desk, his laptop open.

With some soft grumbling, she got up and started dressing in the dark. Su-mi had never been an exceptionally fashionable woman, so her outfits never took much effort to coordinate. She put on brown trousers, a blue blouse and her favorite hoodie before checking the temperature on her phone and deciding to throw a red scarf on. She tied her hair back into a messy ponytail, as close as she could to Dr. Ziegler’s, then grabbed her glasses as she quietly walked over to Mark.

“Hey, Mark,” she gently shook him.

Mark mumbled as he sat up and looked around, “Oh, uhh, morning.”

Su-mi pointed at his bed and he muttered some thanks as he stumbled into it. Su-mi glanced at his laptop, then tapped the keyboard, taking it out of sleep. She saved his presentation then tabbed and saved his paper, glancing at the title, “Integration of Hard-Light Tech for Anti-Grav Flight Stabilization”. She grinned and searched for duct tape; zero results.

“Close the laptop please,” Mark said, his eyes closed.

“Oh, sorry,” Su-mi closed it then glanced at him, putting her glasses on, “What time did you get to sleep?”

Mark grunted in response then rolled over.

“Sleep well,” Su-mi walked out of the room and locked the door. She pulled her phone back out then tapped her contact list, finding her mother’s number.

“Su-mi!” her mother said, picking the phone up before Su-mi realized it was ringing, “How are you?”

Su-mi paused, mentally switching to Korean. When had she started thinking in English? “Hey mom, how’re things?”

“Oh things are great, we just had lunch,” Su-mi heard her mother moving around, “It’s been too long, you need to call more often.”

Su-mi laughed softly, “Well, you know how busy I am.” She started walking down her hallway, towards the cafeteria.

“Mmm, definitely. It’s hard work, adding another Doctor to the Jeong family,” her mother paused, “So, why’d you call?”

Su-mi glanced to the side, looking at the rain, “Just felt like it. It’s been a while. I wanted you to remember that your favorite daughter is still alive.”

“But I know she is, she still lives with me.”

“Chae-won has managed to avoid your ire?” Su-mi raised an eyebrow.

“Yes! I wish you had been more like her as a teenager,” Su-mi’s mom laughed.

“Please, she’s only a good teenager because she had me to learn from.”

“Ahh, so you admit she’s a better student than you?”

“I’m remembering why I don’t come home,” Su-mi smiled in spite of herself, “Oh, it’s raining here. I guess I’ll have to run inside.”

Su-mi’s mother hummed softly, “Are you enjoying your work?”

Su-mi stopped in the communal lounge and sat down on one of the couches, “Yeah. Dr. Ziegler is…” she glanced up and listened to the rain bounce off the compound. Her mother stayed quiet, she knew sometimes Su-mi needed a moment to think. “I read the stories about her when I got accepted, but I didn’t think she’d live up to all of them.” She sighed, “Sometimes the pressure feels overwhelming, but I suppose following her footsteps is the path I chose for myself.”

Her mother cleared her throat slightly, “Are you keeping healthy?”

“Yeah, I run every day,” Su-mi glanced down, “Well, most days.”

“Sometimes it’s healthy to not run. You’re eating enough?”

“Mark makes sure of that, he loves eating. I don’t think I ever see him exercise though.” Su-mi stood up, “Hey mom, I should probably get some breakfast.”

“Ah! Yes, it’s almost six for you.”

“Yeah,” Su-mi started walking to the entrance of the lounge.

“We’re very proud of you. Oh, your dad gets off work in about five hours every day, next time you call try calling then okay?”

“Yes mom, tell him I say hi.” Su-mi swallowed, “It was nice to hear your voice again.”

Her mother laughed, “Is that your roundabout way of saying I love you?”

“Maybe. Okay I should go now. Bye,” Su-mi waited for her mother to echo the farewell before hanging up. She pocketed the phone and started muttering to herself in Korean. She couldn’t remember the last time she spoke Korean; English was effectively the official language of Overwatch. Most nanotechnology papers were also written in English, and her thesis was in English. Su-mi glanced down, she’d have to ask Mark how thick her accent was. Maybe she was becoming completely fluent.

Su-mi stopped at the entrance, looking at the door to the outside. Why had she called her mother? Maybe it was the stress. She hadn’t been sleeping well lately. She sighed, maybe she’d ask Dr. Ziegler for a week off.

Her stomach growled and she remember why she’d woken up in the first place. She rolled her shoulder and continued towards the cafeteria.

________________________________________

Su-mi sat down in the corner of the cafeteria, glancing down between her legs at her phone. A pile of pancakes sat in front of her and occasionally she glanced up to poke at it. She felt the table wobble slightly and she glanced up, seeing a tall blonde figure sit across from her.

Dr. Ziegler was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, and had her hair tied back into her usual ponytail. She gave Su-mi a warm smiled when Su-mi noticed her. “Good morning, Su-mi.” She set down her tray, which had fruit and yogurt, with a glass of milk on it. Dr. Ziegler cared for her own health as much as she cared about her patients.

Su-mi glanced up, rubbing her eyes, “Morning Dr. Ziegler.”

Ziegler glanced at her tablet, “You’re up early today,”

“Oh, uhh, I couldn’t stay asleep,” Su-mi smiled dryly.

Ziegler hummed, “It says you clocked out of the lab at one in the morning,” she returned her gaze to Su-mi, “Are you getting enough sleep?”

Su-mi averted her gaze. Sometimes Dr. Ziegler felt like a second mother. “I just wasn’t too tired,” she mumbled at her pancakes.

Ziegler laughed softly, “I find that hard to believe. I suspect you’re behind a few weeks of sleep, Su-mi.”

Su-mi sighed, and smiled at Ziegler, “Okay, you got me. I just have a hard time sleeping sometimes.”

“I knew it. Mark snores, doesn’t he?”

Su-mi chuckled, “Not at all.”

“Just make sure you average more than six a night. I’ll ban you from the lab if I have to,” Ziegler tapped her tablet and pulled up the files on the lab’s servers, “So, it seems you uploaded a fairly large update to the nanomachines last night. Is it the new control algorithm?”

Su-mi glanced up and rubbed her eyes, “Yeah, it’s finally ready for initial testing. Mark checked the statistical distribution models, so we should get a faster stream.” She started cutting her pancake, “I’ll test it after I finish eating, okay?”

“Hmm, run it by me. I’ll handle the testing, okay?” Ziegler slid the tablet to the center of the table and projected the diagrams Su-mi had drawn. “This looks like the inside-out controls you were mulling over last time we talked about improving the design.”

“Yup. A preliminary scan is run by the staff to locate the heart, where the machines are then deployed.” Su-mi reached for the tablet, glancing at Ziegler before she touched it. Ziegler nodded her affirmation and Su-mi pulled up a model of a human, “The machines follow the bloodstream, with a broadcast on their locations and the status of their immediate vicinity, which lets the machines form a map of the body.” She tapped the midsection, and an injury appeared on the model, “Whenever an injury is found most of the incoming machines will be sent to the injury to deploy their payloads. Once the stem cell payload each nanomachine is carrying is dropped off, the nanomachines return to the staff’s incubator to pick up a new cell. This continues until the injury is resolved. While this happens, the other machines continue to map the body. Mark gave an estimate of about five seconds to fully map an average person, based on rough scans of him and me.”

Ziegler tapped her chin, “We can likely double that estimate for Reinhardt.”

Su-mi scoffed, “At the least.” She tapped the heart of the model them opened her hands, zooming into it, “I made sure to heavily control the initial flow rate of nanomachines, just to make sure we don’t blow people’s hearts up.”

“Likely a good decision.”

“I learned from the best,” Su-mi spun the model around, “Though could you focus the first test on that. If there are any issues-“

“I’ll work on them myself,” Ziegler moved her hand next to Su-mi’s and stopped the rotation of the model.

Su-mi slowly lowered her hand, “Are you sure, you’re rather busy aren’t you?”

“Not so busy that I can’t make sure one of my assistants is well rested,” Ziegler closed the projection, “Why don’t you take a day or two off?”

Su-mi glanced down, pausing, “…Sure.” She picked her fork up and started cutting her pancakes.

“How are you, by the way, Su-mi? You still run right?” Ziegler picked up her milk and sipped.

“Yeah, not as much as I’d like to, but I try to go every other day at least.” Su-mi finished cutting her pancake into quarters.

Ziegler nodded, “You don’t drink too often, and your diet seems to be fairly balanced too,” she muttered.

“Dr. Ziegler, did this suddenly become a physical?”

“Am I not allowed to worry about your health?” Ziegler ran a hand through her hair. Su-mi found herself staring at Ziegler’s face; Angela wasn’t that much older than her, was she?

“I think, other than the sleep, I’m rather healthy.”

“Mmm, then we’ll definitely need to resolve that,” Ziegler tapped her head, “Your mental health is just as important as your physical, okay?”

“Of course,” Su-mi started eating her pancake, ignoring that it had gotten cold.

Ziegler picked up a grape then glanced up, “It’s times like these that I’m reminded of my complete lack of hobbies.”

“I’m with you there,” Su-mi held up a finger on her left hand, “If I think back on it, back in high school, I used to like solving puzzles.”

“Puzzles?”

“Yeah, like Rubik’s Cubes and such. I used to enter competitions for speed solves. I ended up having a hard time producing any competitive times, so I then decided to try to enter competitions to solve them blindfolded,” Su-mi stabbed another piece of pancake, “Blindfolded solves took more brainpower than the speed solves.” She held up the pancake, “At least, that’s what I told myself.”

“Can you still solve your old puzzles?”

“Probably. Definitely not blindfolded, though,” Su-mi glanced at her pancake, “It’s actually why I decided to do a dual major in Computer Science. I was told that there were a lot of algorithms and logic in that.”

“Sometimes I feel spoiled having two assistants that did dual majors,” Ziegler said, eating the grape.

“Don’t you have both a PhD and an MD though? I’d say having a dual major should be a minimum requirement to work with you.”

Ziegler shrugged, “You two are definitely more than I expected.” She looked at Su-mi intently, “Say, Su-mi?”

Su-mi blushed at Ziegler’s gaze, “Y-yes Dr. Ziegler?”

“Do Koreans eat with their eyes? You’ve been holding up that piece of pancake for a while.”

Su-mi quickly ate the piece in response, causing Ziegler to smirk.

________________________________________

Su-mi laid back on her bed, staring at her phone, “Hey Mark,” she mumbled.

He glanced back from his desk, “Yeah?”

“What do you do on your days off?”

Mark spun in his chair then leaned back, “Well, I, uhh, used to hang out with Lara. Uhh, before I dated her I’d just walk around I guess?”

“That sounds boring,” Su-mi sat up.

“To be honest, it kind of is. Back in university I’d read math papers and practice solving problems for the Olympiads.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. You were a mathlete,” Su-mi gave a sly grin.

“Oh my god,” Mark muttered, “Don’t even. I was a badass.”

The two of them stared at each other, Mark trying to look as serious as he could, while Su-mi proudly displayed her most obnoxious smile. After a pause, they both started laughing.

“I wasn’t just a mathlete, by the way,” Mark said.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Passed Math 55 with an A+, finished a degree in pure mathematics along with your aerospace engineering degree. Praise be to the mighty Mark Quill.”

“Damn straight, know your place Miss Jeong.”

Su-mi hopped up and walked over to Mark’s desk, “When’s your conference by the way?” She paused, “Get me a souvenir from Tokyo by the way.”

“Oh, I’m leaving tomorrow. And sure,” he smiled, “Did you read my paper while I was asleep this morning?”

“I just checked it to make sure you didn’t tell your readers to duct tape mission crucial components,” Su-mi leaned over him and looked at his laptop, “It’s all done?”

“Hmm, pretty much,” he clicked his tongue and scrolled through it, “It’s a bit longer than I wanted it to be.”

“That won’t do, Mark, brevity is the soul of wit, after all.”

“Hard light is weird, dude,” Mark shrugged, “There’s someone presenting on another teleporting fighter idea. It’s still very theoretical though, seems Overwatch was at least a decade ahead of everyone else there.”

“We still failed, though,” Su-mi stood up.

“They didn’t have me working on it,” he said under his breath.

“Someone’s ambitious,” Su-mi smacked the back of Mark’s chair, “Talk to Dr. Ziegler about it. Could you imagine a teleporting Valkyrie suit? Nobody would die. Ever.”

Mark raised an eyebrow at Su-mi.

“I’m kidding. But talk to her about it, you definitely have the time for another project. Though I’ve been a bit spoiled with your help on the controls.”

“You’re stuck with me there, I don’t trust your math.”

Su-mi let out her best offended gasp.

Mark held his arms apart, “I’m just that good. The mighty Mark Quill.”

Su-mi rolled her eyes then glanced at Mark’s bed, where he’d set out three days of clothes. “What are you doing today?”

“Uhh, obsessively checking my paper for errors, going over my presentation until I can recite it in my sleep, typical pre-conference stuff.”

Su-mi glanced at the time. It was a bit past noon, “Want to go out for dinner and drinks at like six?”

“S-sure,” Mark said, “I do actually need to review my presentation though.”

“Yeah, I’ll go work out first.” Su-mi stretched.

“For five and a half hours?”

Su-mi nodded, “I’ll work out and then do something first.”

“You’re very good at this day off thing, aren’t you?” Mark closed his laptop, “I can send you some of my old math papers, you might find them a bit interesting. Though… they might be a bit hard for you.”

“Oh, of course. I can barely hope to comprehend the domain of pure mathematics,” Su-mi paused, “Though, seriously? You guys are insane.”

Mark held his hands up, “You guys? Hey, hey, I’m exclusively applying my math these days.

He glanced towards Su-mi’s desk, “Oh, I know. I’ll send you a paper while you go work out. A surprise.”

“Well, now I have something to look forward to,” Su-mi stood up and walked to her dresser, “I’m going to change.”

Mark nodded and walked out of the room.

________________________________________

Su-mi spent a quiet hour in Overwatch’s gyms jogging on one of the treadmill, zoning out and ignoring the other Overwatch members. She didn’t like treadmills too much, but they were preferable to running in the rain. Running was never really about the exercise for her. It was a way to meditate. When she jogged it was just her and her thoughts, a way to review the work she’d done recently, and see if she had any new insights. Su-mi couldn’t begin to count the number of times she’d been stuck on a problem, then come back after a run with a new approach that led to a solution. Though, it was a bit odd running without a pressing problem to meditate on.

When she returned to the room Mark was out, so she had a quick shower, put on her clothes from the morning, then turned her computer on, pulling up the paper Mark had sent her: “k-Transitivity in the Megaminx Group” by Stucky. She transferred the paper to her tablet, deciding to read in the lounge area of the living dorms.

After a couple of hours Mark walked into the lounge, looking around. “Ah, there you are,” he said to Su-mi as he waved at a group of people playing foosball in the back of the lounge. “Shall we?”

Su-mi closed her tablet and hopped up, “You completely done?”

“As done as I’ll ever be,” Mark sighed, “Dr. Ziegler gave me the, uhh, go ahead, so I’ll pretend that everything is fine.” He looked at Su-mi’s tablet, “Oh, what’d you think?”

Su-mi smiled, “Interesting, never quite thought of puzzles as a tool for mathematics. Why’d you pick out that one for me?”

“Wasn’t the megaminx your favorite puzzle?”

Su-mi’s smile widened, “I knew you cared.” They walked down the hallway towards their room, “Though, I’ll be honest, this stuff is a bit abstract.”

“Woah now, that paper was written in 2020, can’t be that far behind now,” Mark shook his head, “I should’ve known, pure mathematics was too difficult.”

Su-mi scoffed, “Shall we talk about your understanding of programming?”

“Let’s not,” Mark held the door open to their room and they both stepped in. He grabbed a slim metal rod while Su-mi looked at her dresser.

“Think I need another layer?” she said.

Mark paused, “Oh, uhh, you probably shouldn’t leave the headquarters in that hoodie,” he said, gesturing at the Overwatch logo on it.

“Huh?” Su-mi turned to face Mark.

“Things have been kind of, uhh, tense after London.”

“Oh. Right.” Su-mi frowned, pulling off the hoodie and grabbing a grey jacket.

The two of them quietly walked to the entrance of the Overwatch headquarters. Once there Mark held up the rod and tapped a button, deploying a translucent blue barrier. He fiddled with a dial, making it big enough to cover both him and Su-mi.

“I wonder what Reinhardt would think if he found out that you repurposed his shield tech to make an umbrella,” Su-mi idly said, watching Mark step out into the rain.

“Hopefully he’d find it badass,” Mark glanced up, watching the rain bounce off the barrier. He puffed himself up and cleared his throat, “Don’t worry, friends. I am your umbrella,” he bellowed.

Su-mi stared at him, her eyes wide. She started to giggle and stepped out under the barrier. “You’re a dork, you know?”

“I take it as the highest compliment.”

________________________________________

Su-mi pushed through the bar trying to find somewhere for her and Mark to sit; Mark had excused himself to go to the bathroom as soon as they’d arrived. Su-mi quietly cursed Mark’s weak bladder in her head- the man was easily 6’3”, he would’ve had no problem forcing his way through the crowd.

Fortunately, the music was a reasonable volume tonight, as nobody was really dancing- another reason Su-mi preferred going out on weeknight when people had things to do in the morning. After a few minutes Mark found his way to the booth and paused, “Welp,” he murmured.

“What’s up?” Su-mi said.

“Oh, uhh, this is where,” Mark made a face.

“Lara and you?”

Mark nodded.

“Well this is the only free seat,” Su-mi beamed at Mark, “I promise I won’t break up with you.”

Mark sat down across from Su-mi, grumbling.

“Aww, is someone feeling emotional?”

Mark shrugged, “If I cry it’s your fault.”

“If you cry I’m making fun of you,” Su-mi waved down a waiter and ordered a locally brewed IPA, Mark ordered a milk stout. They both ordered meatballs with mashed potatoes, and the waiter walked off, quickly returning with their drinks.

Mark glanced to the side at the other people in the bar, trying to see if he could pick out any conversation among the buzz. Su-mi stared at her beer.

“You know, I thought that this reception would happen. I’m not sure why I’m so annoyed by it,” she said eventually.

Mark slowly lowered his glass, “Uhh, about London?”

“Yeah.”

Mark’s expression turned sullen, “I know. It’s not fair. They’re heroes.”

“Them being heroes has nothing to do with it. Overwatch made the objectively correct decision. Their intervention saved lives,” Su-mi steepled her hands, “I just hate how the mayor had to bring politics into it.”

“Why do you think it was received this way?” Mark picked his glass up again, not drinking.

“Fear.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged, “People are afraid of Overwatch. Not of what it is, but of what it could be.”

“We,” Mark said.

“We?”

“What we are. What we could be. You and I are members of Overwatch, remember.”

“Sometimes I do forget that,” Su-mi smiled at Mark, “I only came here because of Dr. Ziegler. I wanted to work with her more than anything else in the world.”

“And here you are,” Mark smiled in response.

“Here I am,” Su-mi leaned down and sipped from the head of her beer, “Why’d you sign up with Dr. Ziegler?”

“I didn’t actually, I just applied for the Overwatch Doctoral Research Program via Harvard-“

“Ah, same as me,” Su-mi interjected.

“Yeah. And Dr. Ziegler recruited me. I did like the idea of her suit, truth be told. It’s nice working on something that I know is helping save lives.” Mark glanced at the ceiling.

“There’s a but coming.”

Mark let out a dry laugh, “But, I want to be working on more. I’m not saying that this work isn’t important. I’m just not as close as you are with Dr. Ziegler.”

“I have been here longer.”

“That’s probably part of it. But you also work with nanotechnology. You’re trying to get your PhD in Applied Nanobiology, right? Just like her.” Mark sighed, and fidgeted in his seat, “I know I’m probably bitching too much. She’s been nothing but encouraging of the personal research I do on the side though.”

“This is why you need to pitch your Slipstream idea to her. I’m sure she’ll find a way to tie it into our work.”

Mark drained his glass, and looked into it, “Teleporting nanomachines,” he said.

“See! There we go, that’d be awesome.”

He scoffed, “Unfortunately they wouldn’t work like that. You’re right though, I’ll talk to her after I get back from the conference.”

“There we go, buddy,” Su-mi waved down the waiter and ordered another round for Mark.

________________________________________

The next morning Su-mi woke up around nine in the morning. Mark had decided not to wake her up when he left, which she was thankful for. She hopped out of bed and read the morning news before having a quick shower and getting dressed.

After some deliberation Su-mi decided to stop by the lab where Dr. Ziegler was testing the new algorithm on a dummy. Ziegler shook her head with a smile when Su-mi approached the door; clearly a sign that she was serious about Su-mi’s day off.

Deciding she was in a nostalgic mood, Su-mi decided to head into town to find a puzzle or game store, hoping to buy something to occupy her time.

Once Su-mi got back to headquarters, with a new Rubik’s cube, she checked the time. It was barely one in the afternoon- time passed slowly when she wasn’t stressed. She returned to her room and finished reading the paper Mark had sent her before deciding to open up the new control system she had written and reviewing them. Dr. Ziegler hadn’t sent her the test results yet; likely on purpose. Resigning herself to Ziegler’s determination for her to not work, Su-mi opened the cube and mixed it up, quickly remembering the old algorithms she’d used to solve them.

At around 5 she decided to go get dinner, when she bumped into Ziegler in the hall.

“Ah, Su-mi, I was actually looking for you,” Ziegler said, giving Su-mi a comforting smile.

“Y-you were?” Su-mi tilted her head.

“Mmm, I must apologize, but I need your help. We’re going on a mission, so I’d appreciate some assistance in calibrating my suit before I head out.”

“Oh! Of course,” Su-mi rubbed her eyes, “After you.”

The two of them headed to the mission prep room, where the current iteration of the Valkyrie Flight Suit was stored. Su-mi set to making sure the flight system was stable, running through the checklist Mark had written. Wings were stable. Feathers were all connected and charged. Internal biotics were active.

Once she was sure Dr. Ziegler wouldn’t be killed by any failures, Su-mi helped her into the suit, averting her gaze during appropriate moments; which always caused Ziegler to chuckle. Su-mi had explained it as Korean etiquette.

Once Ziegler was fully kitted the two walked out to the shuttle bay, where a ship was being loaded with supplies. Su-mi stepped back once and gave a forced smile.

“What’s wrong, Su-mi?” Ziegler placed a hand on Su-mi’s shoulder.

“I’m just thinking about the reception your last mission got.”

Ziegler nodded, “Don’t worry, we’re doing a rescue operation in Pakistan, nothing too controversial, I hope.”

“I’m sure someone will find a way to get upset,” Su-mi ran a hand through her hair, feeling Ziegler’s hand press against her. “Which iteration of the nanomachines are you using?”

“Ah, I was wondering when you’d ask that. Your controls tested wonderfully, so I think we can confidently call this a field test.” Ziegler glanced back at the shuttle as it hummed to life, “Ah, I’d better get going.

“Any chance of you sending me the results of the lab tests?”

“Tomorrow, Su-mi,” Ziegler pulled her hand away, “I’ll also include updates from the mission.”

Su-mi nodded then stepped back and gave a half salute, “Have fun out there, Mercy.”

“Ah, so you’ll call me that, but not Angela?”

“Let’s call that another Korean etiquette.”

Ziegler waved at Su-mi as she boarded the ship. Su-mi almost jumped as heavy armor thudded next to her.

“Oh! Sorry Miss Jeong,” Reinhardt paused as he stepped past her, “Having a good day off?”

“A bit boring, to be honest,” she said.

Reinhardt gave a solemn nod, “Aye! Idleness never suited me either,” he pumped his hammer then continued to the ship.

Su-mi watched the remaining members of the squadron board the shuttle, and waited for the shuttle to take off before she decided to go find that dinner. After dinner she returned to her room and decided to watch another documentary before bed.

________________________________________

“Su-mi,” a firm voice called, shaking her. “Su-mi,” it repeated a bit louder.

Su-mi quickly sat up, looking around frantically. She paused when she saw Dr. Ziegler, still in her Valkyrie suit. Su-mi covered her mouth as she yawned, “Dr. Ziegler?”

Ziegler nodded, “It’s 2:33 AM,” she said, “Unfortunately I need you awake. Get up, I’ll get you some water.” Ziegler turned and walked to the bathroom, filling up a glass. Su-mi stood up and quickly dressed, taking the water once she finished.

“What is it?” Su-mi said after she had a drink to clear her throat.

“I’ll explain while we walk,” Ziegler walked out of the room, followed by Su-mi. Su-mi winced at the light in the hallway.

“There was a bug with the new control system,” Ziegler said, her boots clacking against the floor of the hall.

Su-mi glanced at Ziegler and rubbed her eyes. The side of the suit was stained with blood. “Wait, are you okay?”

“Oh,” Ziegler glanced down at herself, “Yes. Sorry, this is probably not a pleasant sight to wake up to.”

“Right,” Su-mi looked back forward, “There was a bug?”

Ziegler took a deep breath, “I was treating a patient, puncture wounds in the chest and major lacerations on the right forearm. The chest wounds healed nearly immediately, which makes sense considering the new deployment system. However, when the nanomachines presumably moved to treat the arm the patient experienced a sudden burst of pain. Before I could respond there was a rapid series of ruptures which resulted in the loss of the patient’s arm.”

Su-mi blinked, stopping. Ziegler glanced back at her. Su-mi looked down, “Sorry, I need a second to process this.” Su-mi slowly counted to five in her head, taking a deep breath. She breathed out, counting to five again. “Okay,” Su-mi nodded, “Okay,” she glanced up at Ziegler, “First things first, we need to roll back the code, restore it to the prior control system.”

Ziegler nodded, “Already done. It was the first thing I did upon making sure the patient was alive.”

“All right. The patient lost their arm? Where is the patient?” Su-mi forced herself to breath slowly, feeling her breath quiver.

“He was immediately moved to an Overwatch medical facility in Dubai. Dr. Lindholm is currently manufacturing him a prosthetic arm. I’ve contacted Mark; he’ll be boarding a flight to Dubai later this afternoon, around when the prosthetic should be finished.” Ziegler set off.

Su-mi nodded and started walking again, “You’ll be having Mark and me install the arm I assume?”

Ziegler opened the door to their lab, stepping in, “I’d like you to also perform a physical on him, see if you can figure out if there is anything with the patient that may have caused the bug.”

Su-mi followed her in, “And until we go to Dubai?”

“We need to figure out how this happened and resolve it,” Ziegler sat down and buried her head in her hands.

Su-mi approached Ziegler, “Are you okay?”

“What went wrong? How did we miss this?” she said.

Su-mi looked around, before her gaze settled at her feet. “I’m sorry, Dr. Ziegler. I’ll take full responsibility.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You, me, Mark. We all worked on this. We ran the tests on the dummies and nothing went wrong,” Ziegler looked up at Su-mi, a fire in her eyes, “What happened, happened. Now it’s our job as scientists to fix this problem we created. We must do everything in our power to make amends to the patient, and the first step in that is ensuring that nothing like this ever happens again.”

“Right,” Su-mi took a deep breath, “I’ll perform another test on the dummies with a new batch of nanomachines and compare the results to the tests you ran yesterday. While I’m doing that, you should probably change Dr. Ziegler.”

“You’re right, I probably should,” Ziegler stood up, “Thank you, Su-mi. I’ll be right back to help with the tests.”

“Oh, what control system were the suit’s internal biotics using?”

Ziegler stopped at the door, “Same as in the staff.”

“And you had no issues?”

“None that I’m aware of.”

Su-mi picked up a tablet and pulled up a diagram of the control system, “What the hell,” she said under her breath.

________________________________________

The test on the medical dummies returned the same result as they had yesterday, indicating that there was a stable stream of the nanomachines throughout the dummy, and that deployment of the stem cells was consistent. When an injury was applied to the dummy there was an increased flow of nanomachines to the area via the bloodstream. This caused a temporary increase in local pressure around the injury, which was resolved as soon as the injury was healed. However; the pressure was well within the range that the human body could handle.

Ziegler returned after changing into a brown blouse and her lab coat, focusing her efforts on studying the actual machines that were used. While Ziegler analyzed the nanomachines Su-mi opened the code and started pouring through it line by line, making sure they had implemented the control algorithm exactly.

Ten hours and a few pitchers of coffee later Su-mi banged her head against the desk, resting it here.

Ziegler looked over at her, “Feeling okay, Su-mi?”

“Code is perfect. I’m actually kind of impressed with myself- it’s an exact implementation of the control system we designed.” Su-mi adjusted her glasses, “Anything with the nanomachines?”

“The drivers are all fine, the hardware itself runs completely fine,” Ziegler frowned.

“We could check the stem cell incubator in the staff.”

Ziegler nodded, “It’s worth a check. It is possible that the new control system had issues picking up stem cells properly? Or perhaps the cells that were being grown had an adverse reaction with the patient?”

“I doubt the latter one,” Su-mi turned her chair around, “I’ll go over the control system again.” She paused, looking at Dr. Ziegler. Ziegler’s hair was more of a mess than it usually was, and there were heavy bags under her eyes. But there was a quiet determination to her. Dr. Ziegler probably wasn’t going to rest until this was resolved. Neither was Su-mi.

“The suit’s internal biotics also ran the new control algorithm, so if there was a problem with the code and the stem cells wouldn’t it have also affected you?”

“You’re right. But let’s just check anyways,” Ziegler rubbed her eyes, “We’re starting to run out of leads.”

There was a knock then the door opened. Ziegler looked over at the person walking in, “Torbjörn,” she curtly said.

“Angela,” he replied. “The arm’s all done.” He glanced at Su-mi, “You’ll be taking care of it?”

Su-mi nodded, waiting for Ziegler to respond. Ziegler turned back to her computer. “Thank you Dr. Lindholm. I look forward to seeing your work,” Su-mi said, bowing her head.

“Pah,” Torbjörn turned, “Come and pick it up when you’re ready to leave.” The door shut and Ziegler sighed.

“You should probably get ready to go, Su-mi. Try to dress well. And make sure Mark does as well,” Ziegler smiled at Su-mi, “He can be somewhat disheveled.” She paused, “Truth be told, you can be too.”

“We sacrificed our fashion senses for the chance to work with you, Dr. Ziegler.”

Ziegler let out a soft titter, “I’ll go ahead and look at the control system when you’re gone. There must have been something I missed.”

Su-mi nodded and excused herself. She’d rather spend a few days without sleep than go talk to the patient. But this was her job.

________________________________________

Su-mi changed into a blue and white striped blouse, which she tucked into a pair of black trousers. She wore a matching black blazer over the blouse, and then quickly packed her medical supplies along with her laptop before running off to grab the arm. Dr. Lindholm had placed it in a sealed case, insisting that she keep the case sealed until they arrived at the hospital. After a quick farewell to Dr. Ziegler, Su-mi hopped onto a shuttle which flew to Dubai International Airpot; where Mark was due to land ten minutes after them.

Su-mi had an uneasy nap on her flight over, waking up to the turbulence of the landing. A car was reserved for her and she hopped into it, driving it over to the terminal Mark was set to arrive at. After a few minutes of waiting Mark stepped out, wearing a blue and white striped button-down tucked into black trousers with a black sports jacket over the shirt. He paused when Su-mi stepped out of the car. “God damn it,” he said.

Su-mi started snickering. “No, no, this is perfect. I have a spare pair of glasses, want them?”

“Unfortunately, I can see,” Mark walked to the back of the car and loaded his luggage before hopping into the passenger seat. He studied Su-mi when she sat down, “I wear it better.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself,” Su-mi pulled the car out of the loading area and started driving towards Overwatch’s medical facility. “Sorry, by the way.”

“A-about what?”

“Making you leave your conference early,” Su-mi said, keeping her eyes on the road.

“Ah, so you’re the one that blew up his arm. Damn it, Su-mi.”

“You know what I mean.”

Mark leaned against the door, resting his head against his arm, “I do, and you didn’t make me leave early. How are you feeling, though?”

“Honestly? Scared shitless,” Su-mi tightened her grip on the wheel.

“I know what you mean. People were pissed off at Overwatch after London and they saved people’s lives there. God only knows how this guy is feeling.” Mark sighed, “You can handle the medical analysis, right?”

“Yeah, I did a lot of training in medicine during my first year with Ziegler, to help me understand her nanobiology better.”

“Okay. I can prepare the arm for installation then, I worked a lot with robotics during my year off.” Mark sat up, “Who talks to the patient?”

“I’ll do it,” Su-mi parked the car in the employee parking area, and the two of the put on their identification badges. Mark grabbed the case with the arm, while Su-mi took the medical supplies. When they got in Su-mi approached the front desk and cleared her throat, “We’re here to see Mazur Nissar.”

The clerk perked up when he heard the name and studied Su-mi and Mark, “Ah, you’re here with the arm?”

Su-mi gave a nod in response.

“Right this way,” the clerk got up and led them to an elevator in the back. The facilities were a sleek, pristine white. Medical robots patrolled the halls, accompanied by doctors who took them from room to room. It was, as most things publicly associated with Overwatch, precise and methodical to the highest possible degree.

They took the elevator to the third floor, the clerk told them to follow the main hall, where they’d find Nissar’s room on the left. Su-mi walked slowly, trying to compose herself as they walked. When they found the room they both stopped.

“Any last words, Mark?” Su-mi said, reaching out for the door.

“I was always smarter than you.”

“I’m glad your sense of humor persists even in the face of death,” Su-mi opened the door.

Nissar had been given one of the larger rooms in the compound, along with a window view. Next to his bed was a monitor that connected to a scanner that ran real time diagnostics of his vitals. At the side of the room, by the door, was a wooden dresser which was laden with flowers and cards. Nissar himself was sitting in the bed carefully reading on a tablet. His right forearm had been temporarily replaced with a hook, which he was using to prop the tablet up against his lap.

Nissar was a middle aged, swarthy man of portly build. He had short cropped hair, and a long beard which looked to be meticulously maintained. He glanced up and smiled at Su-mi and Mark as they stepped in. “Ah! You must be the Overwatch doctors?”

“We’re not quite doctors yet; we work with Dr. Ziegler,” Su-mi said as she cleared some space on the dresser and set down her bag.

“That’s Mercy’s name, right?” Mazur’s smiled widened, “Then it is fantastic to see you. They told me you’d be coming with my new arm. But it has barely been a day.”

Mark stared at Nissar, trying not to gape, “Uh, Dr. Lindholm works rather fast.”

Su-mi exchanged a glance with Mark and he shrugged before moving to the windowsill and opening the case. “Mr. Nissar, I’m Su-mi and this is Mark.” She stepped to the bed. Nissar hopped out and Su-mi held her right hand out to shake his. She paused, “Oh- I’m so sorry.”

Nissar started guffawing, “Don’t worry I’ve already made that mistake. Hook or hand? Your choice.”

Su-mi held her left hand out and shook his hand, “Pardon me for asking, but you seem to be in good spirits.”

Nissar held his arms apart, “Why should I not be? A fully working prosthetic arm costs thousands usually, and Overwatch was kind enough to offer to pay for my new one themselves. And I get one made by one of the best engineers in the world, no?”

“But aren’t we responsible for-“

“I know what you are going to say, and please do not finish,” Nissar nodded, “If Mercy hadn’t come to heal me I would have likely died from the injuries I had sustained to my chest. An arm is a small price to pay for my life. Especially when it gets replaced so fast.”

Mark pinched the bridge of his nose and kept his gaze down, his shoulders shaking gently.

“Right, well,” Su-mi let out a sigh of relief, “I’d still like to extend sincerest apologies from both Overwatch, Dr. Ziegler and myself,” Su-mi bowed. “Before we attach your arm, I would like to run a quick medical check-up on you. We’re trying to analyze what happened so we can prevent any future incidents.”

“Ah, of course. Do you need me to do anything?”

Su-mi walked back to her bag and grabbed a handheld scanned, “Just stand still for now,” she pointed the scanner at Nissar and a series of lasers ran along his body.

Nissar studied the lights dancing on his body, “Tell me, how am I doing?”

“Mmm, you’re a bit overweight to be honest,” Su-mi said, transferring the results of the scan to her tablet.

“Wow, even without my arm?”

Mark failed to stifle a laugh as he pulled the arm out and started inspecting the end that would connect to the arm.

“I’m afraid so,” Su-mi glanced at the scanner, “Are you on any medications?”

“I take some anticoagulants,” Nissar said.

Su-mi hummed, “For arteriosclerosis?”

“Yup,” Nissar glanced at the bed, “Can I sit?”

“Oh, yes. Sorry,” Su-mi studied her tablet then looked up, “Other than that you seem to be reasonably healthy. Any other medications?”

Nissar shook his head. Su-mi squinted at her tablet, “I believe Mark can take over from here,” she said, gesturing at Mark.

Mark stepped to the side of the bed, “Okay, um, do you want a quick rundown on how this works?”

“Of course! It’s going to be attached to me, right?”

“Fair, fair, though to be honest I have no idea how my actual arm works,” Mark held the prosthetic arm up, “Okay, so we’re going to get a doctor to strip the dead nerve endings off of your right arm, then connect the live nerves to the sensors in the arm. This lets the arm receive signals from your brain to control it, and lets the arm give tactile feedback to the brain. So you’ll be able to feel and such.”

“That sounds… painful,” Nissar said.

“Oh I imagine it’s excruciating,” Mark bobbed his head towards Su-mi, “Unfortunately you’re going to be pumped full of painkillers to numb the arm. We’ll still be able to test if the signals are properly being sent between the arm and the brain, but the pain won’t be as bad.”

Su-mi stepped forward, “It will still hurt though. Quite a bit. We can have the doctors put you under, but that will delay the testing of the connection quite a bit, meaning if there any mistakes in the connection, we’ll have to redo the test.”

“Your choice,” Mark said.

Nissar stroked his beard, closing his eyes. After some contemplation, he gave stern look to Mark, “I think I would like to be awake for the attaching of my new arm.”

“You’re a brave man, Mr. Nissar,” Mark turned to Su-mi, “I’ll get one of the doctors.”

“Okay, I’ll run the dosage of his painkillers.” Su-mi opened her bag and started preparing the painkillers, double and triple checking the calculation for Nissar’s dosage. Mark jogged out of the room, and returned with a doctor and a robotic assistant.

The doctor approached Su-mi and glanced at her notes, “Can I check your dosage?” he said.

“Oh, of course, doctor…”

“Collier, sorry,” he studied her tablet, nodding to himself, “Okay your calculations are good. Let’s get the patient moved to an operation room.”

Nissar laid down in the bed and the robot slid to the bed and started pushing it out of the room. Mark packed the arm back into the case and jogged after, the doctor at his side. He stopped by Su-mi, “I’d feel more comfortable with you there, to be honest.”

“Oh?”

“Just to, y’know, make sure I’m not doing anything stupid with the electronics.”

Su-mi slid her scanner and tablet into her bag, “Whatever happened to you being smarter than me?”

“Intelligence doesn’t mean I can’t make mistakes.”

“How humble of you,” Su-mi shouldered her pack and they followed Collier to the operation room.

Nissar was strapped down to the table, with a piece of cloth placed between his teeth. Collier administered the painkillers and Nissar winced, biting down as the needle pressed into him. They waited a few minutes for the painkillers to settle before Collier set to work. He moved with machine like precision, carefully stripping the dead skin off the end and shaving off the dead nerves.

Mark and Su-mi observed closely, making sure the electronics were connected properly. Once the live nerves were exposed the prosthetic was connected, and Nissar braced himself, screaming into the cloth. After the arm was connected Mark moved in and performed a routine inspection, making sure everything was calibrated to Nissar.

All in all, the procedure took thirty minutes. By the end of it Nissar was able to freely move his new arm around. He thanked Mark with a hug, and tried to give the same to Su-mi who dodged it. Once they were sure Nissar was going to be healthy they packed up and headed back to the airport.

________________________________________

A day later, back in the lab, Su-mi sipped from a mug of steaming coffee, staring at the medical reports of Mazur Nissar. Mark was doing a fourth check on the math he’d done for the algorithms, and Dr. Ziegler was napping in the corner of the lab. She wasn’t quite sure why she’d decided to take another look at his files. He wasn’t allergic to the stem cells or the nanomachines.

“Part of me wants to scrap all this and just start from scratch,” Mark said, leaning back in his chair.

“Can’t do that. What if we run into the same bug. We need to know what caused it.” Su-mi lifelessly said.

Mark raised his legs onto the desk and closed his eyes.

“Don’t you dare, Mark,” Su-mi said, looking closely at the records. There was one small detail she hadn’t bothered to pursue. Every other option had been double, triple and quadruple checked. Might as well test something minor.

“I haven’t slept since my plane flight.” Mark groaned and forced himself to stand up, “Give me something to do, I’m getting nowhere with this.”

“I think I have an idea,” Su-mi set the mug down, “What happens when the nanomachines can’t move any further?”

“They’ve reached an extremity, so they figure out where they are on the body and then map the area,” Mark walked over to Su-mi, “Why?”

“What takes priority, reaching the injury or stopping when it reaches an extremity?”

“The injury of course.”

“Ah.” Su-mi set her mug down, “There we go.” She walked over to one of the dummies, “Want to see something cool?” Su-mi knelt down and started fiddling with the settings, “Dr. Ziegler is extraordinarily healthy, and we have the training dummies set to the average metrics of the population, occasionally testing various extremes.” She raised the blood pressure of the dummy then inserted a blood clot into the right arm below the elbow. “Come heal this thing,” Su-mi put a laceration on the right forearm then stepped back.

Mark grabbed a Caduceus staff and aimed it at the dummy, projecting a healing stream. After a few seconds, the laceration was still there and he frowned, taking a step forward. As his foot landed the right arm of the dummy burst and nanomachines dropped to the floor of the lab. Dr. Ziegler bolted up in surprise.

“You figured it out?” Mark looked at Su-mi.

“I figured it out,” Su-mi walked to Ziegler and handed her some coffee, “Nissar had high blood pressure along with minor blockages of his arteries because of his arteriosclerosis.”

Ziegler held the coffee, letting it warm her hand, “So the nanomachines built up, trying to push past a blockage.”

“Holy shit,” Mark mumbled. “Why the fuck didn’t we test for that?”

“An honest mistake,” Ziegler started pacing, “So we need to rework the distribution system of nanomachines. The random spreading and map building work perfectly. Okay. Why don’t we get some sleep, and we can start work tomorrow? For now, I’ll continue using the older control system.”

“Of course, Dr. Ziegler,” she took off her glasses and rubbed her face.

Ziegler set the coffee down then walked next to Su-mi and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Magnificent work. This is why I picked you to help me on this project.”

“Thanks,” Su-mi yawned, “I’m a bit too tired to express how much that really means to me, Dr. Ziegler.”

Mark scoffed as Ziegler walked out of the room waving at them. Once she was out of the room he turned, “You going to just stay here for a bit and bask in your glory?”

“Let me have this.”

“Yeah, yeah. G’night,” Mark walked out of the lab.

Su-mi grinned to herself; this was why she did what she did. She pumped her fist when she was sure nobody was looking then headed to bed.


End file.
